Maybe this is premature. Has there been any indication of when we can book on UA or Star carriers and earn miles? The flip side is, if I book on a Sky Team Carrier in July, will I earn OP miles?
Thanks for the notice on this Scott. I actually have a question related to this. I'm traveling EWR - IAH on 1/17 and IAH - EWR on 1/19. As a plat, I'm not too concerned with my chances for an EUA however I'm traveling with my girlfriend and was hoping for a companion upgrade for her. I intentionally booked this trip on 767's for the bigger F cabin but do you think this change will decrease the chance of the companion upgrade being possible? Any suggestions??
Hi Steve GadFly, I'm not too sure that this is going to impact your companion's chances of getting the upgrade. For the weekend of Jan. 16-19, we'll essentially be advancing most of the upgrades that would've otherwise been cleared at the three-hour mark (which is when EUA fills or comes close to filling the First Class cabin). Since companion upgrades are only offered on a standby basis, and are not part of our EUA upgrades, this is why I'm confident you're companion isn't any worse off.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve GadFly
FYI, I separated the reservations....I hope that was the right thing to do in this unique situation.
This is definitely the right strategy if you're okay with the potential of sitting apart in separate cabins. That being the case, it's probably worth thinking through who sits on which side of the curtain!
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Scott O'Leary
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hughw
Maybe this is premature. Has there been any indication of when we can book on UA or Star carriers and earn miles? The flip side is, if I book on a Sky Team Carrier in July, will I earn OP miles?
I don't think anything will be changing until near Q4 2009, certainly not as early as July. If you book a Skyteam carrier in July you should have no problem collecting OP miles.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hughw
Maybe this is premature. Has there been any indication of when we can book on UA or Star carriers and earn miles? The flip side is, if I book on a Sky Team Carrier in July, will I earn OP miles?
That is the million dollar question , and will probably be the most asked question at the DO .
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CO Insider
Close, but not quite. As outlined in #5 in my original post, G class (currently known as Q class) will be bumped up to 100% EQMs regardless of where booked.
Thanks! Somehow I manage to get a lot of fares booked in Q. Seeing those get 100% EQMs will be a huge improvement.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CO Insider
You'll start seeing the new fare classes for bookings made on or after Jan. 17 for travel on or after Jan. 21.
Interesting, especially considering last night I ran some searches for travel the first week of February that were throwing out all kinds of weird fare classes, including a few that I've never seen on the website for CO-operated flights last night.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hyho61
Clarification....
Does the new H fare still get us 2 segment points or will it be new B.
It'll be the new B. The alphabet is being shifted, but with the exception of G (Q in the old alphabet) getting 100% EQM everything else is staying the same.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BlissWorld
Yes SQ and other *A members do it too, but I guess I was thinking more in terms of agreement with UA. For example, flights booked on UA but operated on CO might still earn 100% and be upgradeable. Also, in terms of where the ticket is booked, it matters less within *A
Yep, you are right, it does matter less where the ticket is booked in *A. In many *A programs (I think all??) it doesn't matter at all, since earnings follow the operating carrier, not the selling carrier. So, yes, you might earn 100% on that UA-coded/CO-operated flight, but you might also earn 50%. The problem is that you simply don't know until the miles post. This complete opacity in terms of mileage earning (much worse in Europe, where the alphabet soup includes scores of partial credit fares) is reason #1 why I avoid *A. The UA/US relationship doesn't really tell us much, since both largely stick to a 100% accrual rate. The LH relationship, however gives some hope.
Regardless, CO has remained steadfast in the 50% EQM policy, and in applying this policy to its ST partners, despite this being significantly less common practice in ST than in *A. I see no way that the jump to *A will lead to a change in their strategy. Indeed, given the prevalence of partial credit (not just partial EQM fares) in *A, I struggle to envision a scenario where the partner and codeshare earning landscape doesn't get much worse, after CO makes the jump.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ssullivan
Thanks! Somehow I manage to get a lot of fares booked in Q. Seeing those get 100% EQMs will be a huge improvement.
Interesting, especially considering last night I ran some searches for travel the first week of February that were throwing out all kinds of weird fare classes, including a few that I've never seen on the website for CO-operated flights last night.
I was wondering why I was getting all sorts of weird fares last night - including a $288 r/t fare to LHR from DCA through IAH (it disappeared when I tried to book the return.)
Hi Steve GadFly, I'm not too sure that this is going to impact your companion's chances of getting the upgrade. For the weekend of Jan. 16-19, we'll essentially be advancing most of the upgrades that would've otherwise been cleared at the three-hour mark (which is when EUA fills or comes close to filling the First Class cabin). Since companion upgrades are only offered on a standby basis, and are not part of our EUA upgrades, this is why I'm confident you're companion isn't any worse off.
This is definitely the right strategy if you're okay with the potential of sitting apart in separate cabins. That being the case, it's probably worth thinking through who sits on which side of the curtain!
Scott, thank you so much for your honesty and availability. Your presence on this message board and your willingness to attach a sense of urgency to any question we FT'ers post here is one of the things that truly makes CO stand out from the rest of the pack.
I'm looking forward to meeting you in person at cigarman's dinner and at the DO this February. Consider your first round on me!
By the way, I think my girlfriend would kill me if I didn't at least OFFER her the F seat!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CO DCA
I was wondering why I was getting all sorts of weird fares last night - including a $288 r/t fare to LHR from DCA through IAH (it disappeared when I tried to book the return.)
This has nothing to do with the fare code changes. The fares from WAS-LHR are low right now, and you can connect in IAH. I have not seen the $288+tax, but $318+ for M-W travel and $358 for Th-Su travel is what shows. CO flies two 777s a day from IAH-LHR - and those flights are empty (and the DCA-IAH flights are light). Ends on April 2nd.
!
